1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejection apparatus which ejects liquid onto a liquid ejection surface of an ejection target.
2. Related Art
As a liquid ejection apparatus which ejects liquid onto a target, an ink jet recording apparatus which ejects ink onto a recording medium so as to perform printing has been known. In order to obtain a high-quality image without bleeding with such ink jet recording apparatus, solvent in ink is required to be diffused into the air quickly after the ink has been ejected and has landed onto a recording medium.
As a method of diffusing solvent as described above, a method by heating a recording medium onto which ink has landed or a method by blowing air onto the recording medium has been proposed. For example, a configuration of an ink jet printer using an ink drying method has been disclosed in JP-A-2002-347226. In the ink drying method, a rear surface of a recording medium is heated at a downstream side and an upstream side in a recording medium transportation direction of a line head and a recording surface thereof is heated and dried in a non-contact manner at the downstream side of the line head.
Further, a configuration of an ink jet printer in which a drum for holding and transporting a recording medium is formed by a heating drum has been proposed in JP-A-8-323977.
In addition, a print apparatus which prevents bleeding of a printed matter from occurring by drying a recording medium with an infrared ray irradiation light source and a blower in ink jet printing has been disclosed in JP-A-2001-191507.
As described in JP-A-2001-191507, when the infrared ray irradiation light source and the blower (convection generation unit) are provided on a serial-type printer 10, they can be arranged in a layout as illustrated in FIG. 7 and FIG. 8, for example. FIG. 7 is a side view illustrating an existing liquid ejection apparatus (printer). Further, FIG. 8 is a view schematically illustrating a direction of the air blown from a convection generation unit 170 in the existing liquid ejection apparatus (printer).
In FIG. 7 and FIG. 8, an infrared ray irradiation unit 160 is constituted by an infrared ray irradiation light source 161, a reflector 162, and the like. The infrared ray irradiation light source 161 is arranged in a width direction (first direction) of a recording medium S. The reflector 162 reflects light emitted from the infrared ray irradiation light source 161. The infrared ray irradiation unit 160 irradiates infrared rays onto landed ink to heat the ink so as to accelerate diffusion of solvent in the ink.
Further, the convection generation unit 170 blows air onto the recording medium S onto which ink has landed over the width direction (first direction) of the recording medium S. The convection generation unit 170 is constituted by a plurality of fans 171, an air guide member 172, and an air port portion 173. The plurality of fans 171 are provided so as to be aligned in the first direction. The air guide member 172 guides the direction of the convection generated with rotation of the fans 171. The air port portion 173 blows air guided by the air guide member 172 onto the recording medium S.
A carriage 14 ejects ink from a built-in head while reciprocating along a guide rail 12 provided in the width direction of the recording medium so as to perform printing on the recording medium. The convection generation unit 170 is provided at an upper side of the carriage 14 in a vertical direction. With this, the convection generation unit 170 blows air onto the recording medium S so as to diffuse volatile components quickly from the landed ink.
In the above printer according to an existing example, air blown from the convection generation unit 170 hits an upper surface portion of the carriage 14 at a place where the carriage 14 is located in the first direction so that a direction of the air is changed. Therefore, the air hits the infrared ray irradiation unit 160 so as to cool the infrared ray irradiation light source 161. An infrared radiation ability of the infrared ray irradiation light source 161 is proportional to the fourth power of a temperature thereof. Therefore, if the temperature of the infrared ray irradiation light source 161 is lowered due to the air which hits thereto, a heating ability thereof is largely lowered. As a result, landed ink cannot be heated and dried sufficiently. There arises a problem in that bleeding is generated so as to deteriorate image quality.